Burn the boats

As 2026 approaches, most of us get excited for what can be a fresh start or an opportunity to set ourselves some exciting goals.

We might pick a shiny goal (run a marathon, dry January, meditate daily, stop mindless scrolling)… and for a few days it feels great. We have that “new notebook energy” and fresh-start adrenaline.

Then life does what life does.

Work gets messy. Sleep gets chopped up. Someone gets sick and motivation starts to slip. Suddenly that goal we had becomes a real challenge, and any obstruction fuels agitation. Now we’re annoyed and the goal turns into more of a self-judgment rather than something we’re still excited about.

That’s because, when things get hard and that messy middle appears, we tend to fall back on the way things were. Resolutions often collapse because they rely on a short burst of motivation to overpower long-standing habits. Goals also fail when they’re vague, too big, or too perfect. That one slip becomes an easy opening to a complete blow out.

If we miss a resolution, it’s not because we’re weak. It’s because we overestimated our willpower and underestimated how we’re going to deal with the messy middle. So an important question to add to our planning of what we want to achieve is how we’ll make sure we can keep moving forward when life gets in the way. Because it will.

And the answer to that is, of course, resilience. 😉 

Burn the boats.

There’s a legend about the burning of the boats. In 1519, a Spanish commander named Hernán Cortés landed on the coast of what is now Mexico with a small army, heading into unknown territory. To stop fear and second-guessing from turning into retreat, the story goes that he ordered the ships burned so there was no easy way back for his men.

With any chance of an exit removed, his men had only one option: to commit, adapt, and succeed. The legend endures because it’s a metaphor for modern psychology. When we remove Plan B, Plan A gets serious fast. The safety net is gone.

I used to think that story was some sort of motivation for the big, dramatic moments in life. Now I know that it’s also about the small stuff: putting the phone in another room when we want to prioritize downtime before bed, or turning off notifications when we need a mindful moment. It’s setting up our environment so we don’t need superhero willpower.

I tend to hold back on defining resilience as a means of persevering with pure grit and determination no matter what. I see resilience as our ability to stay steady, adapt quickly, and recover well, even when our plan gets punched in the face.

Because that’s how we really stick to Plan A, by building the resilience that underpins everything else. When we strengthen our internal resolve that there’s always a way forward, we don’t just tick off one goal… we become the kind of person who can keep promises to ourself when conditions aren’t perfect.

Here are a few resilience tools to thread into our planning for 2026.

1. Create a “2026 Identity Line”. Instead of thinking about what we want to achieve, we shift to thinking about who we want to become in 2026. It shouldn’t be vague either, it needs to be practical. A simple example could be that we see ourselves as “someone who handles stress without taking it out on people.” or “I’m someone who recovers properly instead of running on fumes.” Whatever we choose, let’s write one sentence in a place we’ll see it. Because when life gets chaotic, we won’t rise to our goals. Instead, we’ll fall to the identity we’ve set for ourselves. Identity drives behaviour when motivation disappears.

2. Build the system. Following on from the identity, we can pick one tiny daily anchor that supports the person we want to be. The key here is consistency. For example, if we want to handle stress without taking it out on people, we may want to commit to 60 seconds of slow breathing before each meeting. This generates reliability within ourselves and resilience grows the same way compound interest does. Small deposits, repeated over and over for a large payout when we need it.

3. No easy exits. This is the spicy one that relates most to burning the boats. As mentioned above, this metaphor might get a bad rap because we confuse commitment with recklessness. But what I mean is that we stop leaving ourselves an easy exit that sabotages us. If sleep matters, we need phone out of the bedroom. Or if morning calm is really important, we need to keep notifications off until 30 mins after we wake. To do this, we can execute a small strategy to make it difficult for us to cave. This allows us to design our environment so willpower isn’t doing all the heavy lifting.

4. Recovery is a strategy. Most people burn out because we don’t allow ourselves the chance to recover from stress. If we want to see a stronger, steadier, and more present person in 2026, then it’ll be because we made recovery part of the plan. Seriously! Let’s stop treating recovery as a reward and start treating it as a strategic lever. We give ourselves the best chance for success when we’re refueled and rested. To get this happening, we need a simple restoration ritual. Pat the dog, do 20 push-ups, squeeze in a 10-min nap. Just find something that provides an energy boost.

Resilience is a wonderful way to set ourselves up for 2026. It helps us build a system to stay on track when life gets messy.

And that’s why I’m running the 21-Day Resilience Kickstart. On January 1, I’m kicking off a daily challenge built for exactly this moment: when motivation is high, but consistency hasn’t been built yet. Details below. 👇️ 

Until next time, burn just one little boat, and stay resilient.

Carré @ Resilient Minds

PS - The 21-Day Resilience Kickstart is a simple, guided challenge with daily tools and a community to help build real momentum for 2026. You’ll receive a daily prompt with a practical resilience exercise, weekly audio messages, access to an exclusive community, and a live wrap-up call with me on the final day. This is built for people who want to be steadier, calmer, and more in control in 2026. Check it out here.